


A fire starting in my heart

by ninemoons42



Series: I'm Charlotte Xavier, Call Me Charles [5]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Birthday, F/M, Families of Choice, Genderswap, Lapdance, Strip Tease
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-22
Updated: 2011-08-22
Packaged: 2017-10-22 23:04:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/243559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninemoons42/pseuds/ninemoons42





	A fire starting in my heart

  
title: A fire starting in my heart  
author: [](http://ninemoons42.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**ninemoons42**](http://ninemoons42.dreamwidth.org/)  
word count: 1860  
fandom: X-Men: First Class [movieverse]  
pairing: Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr  
rating: R  
notes: Side-stories / timestamps from the universe of [The girl with the thorn](http://ninemoons42.dreamwidth.org/180656.html) in her side. Please read that AU first!  
This story was inspired by the very incongruous image of someone getting a lap dance to the Adele song "Rolling in the Deep".

  
Erik blinked and reread the email on his phone for the third time.

The first thing he saw was the photo. Charles smiling, one hand up in a V for victory sign. She looked like she was in her office. The text underneath: _I haven't forgotten what next Friday is. Did you take the night off as I requested?_

He walked into the break room and got a coffee, doctoring it with several sugar packets, before sitting down to respond: _I did not tell you that they have given me the entire day off?_

The response was almost instantaneous. _Fantastic. Now don't ask me any questions, it's supposed to be a surprise. See you soon._

///

Erik looked up from the crossword puzzle when Emma walked into the kitchen the next morning. "Do I want to be forewarned for next Friday?"

Emma laughed and poured herself a glass of juice. "Even if I wanted to warn you, I wouldn't be able to. I know nothing; that one's all Charles."

He chuckled after a moment. "I should be worried, I think, but I will do no such thing."

"Good idea," Emma said.

Pause, and then he heard her settle down next to him, and he looked up to take one of her hands.

"I'm surprised you're not making plans to have her move in, or for you to move out. Erik. You know we're not children any more, right? I - I won't mind, truly."

Erik smiled and pulled his sister in, kissed her gently on her temple. "Do you want to know what Raven told me recently? He has had the same question on his mind."

"Not surprising."

"Yes. The two of them and the two of us; we have something in common. But to return to Raven - he and Charles have been discussing it for a long time, as they should with the differences between them, and their realizations will apply to us as well. They will cling to each other for as long as they need it, and you and I will do the same. Do not worry, Emma - I am sure we will all be repeating this discussion when the right time comes." Pause, and then he grinned. "I am sure you and Charles will even find the exact same moment to start shouting about it, since you two are so close."

His grin turned into a quiet laugh when Emma replied by punching him lightly in the shoulder, and then by sighing and kissing him on the cheek. "Mixed messages," she said, amused. "I don't care. And Erik?"

"Emma."

"Thank you, for being my brother."

"I am always grateful that you are my sister, Emma."

///

On the evening before his birthday Erik entered the tea shop to a chorus of "Happy birthday!"

Laughing as he blinked away his surprise, he crossed quickly to the counter and kissed his sister - and immediately turned his head for a resounding kiss from Charles. Good-natured cat-calling all around, and Janos laughing as he said, "You need to cut this cake now! Save me from all the hungry people!"

He did, and as the others portioned out the cake between themselves he let Charles lead him to one of the corner tables. Only then was he able to notice what she was wearing - "Is that a costume?"

Charles giggled and got up and turned around slowly on the spot. The suit was dark blue pinstriped in maroon. Double-breasted jacket, white shirt printed in tiny maroon dots. He peered down at her feet, expecting to find some kind of variation on her favorite boots, but she was wearing a pair of pretty sandals, thin straps winding around her ankles.

"That's for me to know," she said, after taking a kiss from him, "and you to find out, later, after we're done here."

"Is this party part of the surprise?" Erik asked as Charles knocked back her beer.

"Not really, but it's convenient, and it means I'm with you early. As for the surprise - that's not until midnight," she said, cheerfully, and then he watched her dig around in her bag for a small box wrapped in brown paper. "This one, though, you can open now."

"You did not have to get me anything, if you have been planning some kind of surprise - mmff," he said, and he was looking into Charles's face, at the smile and at the hand she had put over his mouth.

"Quiet." A wink. "Open that."

He did, and he raised his eyebrows when the box revealed an iPod. "I already have one of these, Charles."

"That one's got a specific type of music," she said, and she put it in his pocket. "Hang on to that for me."

///

"Fifteen minutes to midnight," someone shouted, and Erik looked up, surprised, from the chess board.

"Oh, thank you, Sean!" Charles said, and she looked at the pieces one more time, tipped her own king over. "As good a time as any to concede defeat. Come on, time to leave."

"But my sister - the shop - "

"Leave that to us," Emma said, gliding up to him. For some reason she looked just as excited as Charles, who was throwing all of her things back into her bag, who was tugging on his hand excitedly. "Go on, shoo. See you soon - and don't worry about the car!"

"Car - Charles," Erik said, but he got to his feet and accepted the others' happy wishes, let himself be pulled out the door and River was parked next to his car and Charles was pushing the spare helmet into his hands.

"Get on!" she shouted, as she revved the engine. "Working on a schedule here!"

He looked up in surprise as they drove away from the shop, in the opposite direction from her flat - towards the city, towards its famed waterfront.

The steps of a hotel, and a familiar figure waving at them - Raven, dressed in most of a suit, and grinning as he ran down to them. "Everything's ready, just waiting for you. Keys," he said, and Erik watched, confused, as he dropped a card into Charles's gloved hand.

"You're the best," Charles declared, and she kissed her brother's cheek and got off the bike. "Erik?"

"I still do not know what is going on," he said, as he pulled off the helmet and looked between Charles, Raven, and the doors of the hotel.

"Well, you're about to find out," Raven said. "Have fun." And he was astride the bike, was gone.

Erik raised an eyebrow and looked at the excited grin on Charles's face. "Lead on."

///

Erik looked around the hotel room: at the view outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, at the lit candles on every available surface, at the entertainment system blinking a ready green light. The bed with its covers already turned back - and the chair placed facing the windows.

Charles was still smiling - but this was something more intimate, more familiar, and she let it grow as she approached him again. "iPod, please. And sit down for me? Take the chair."

He gave her the iPod and watched her cross the room. Soft music and an urgent driving beat as she plugged in the media player. Her exaggerated wink as she walked back to stand in front of him, drawing the curtains with an impatient gesture.

"I've never done anything like this," he heard her say. "Promise you won't laugh."

"I would never do such a thing."

"Happy birthday, love," she said, and then the music changed.

A quiet, drugging beat, and an unmistakable contralto voice soaring into the charged air. He knew the song; he knew it was one of her favorites.

He watched, holding his breath, as Charles turned her back on him and began to sway from side to side. "Ignore the words," she whispered. Her hands coming up and meeting over her head; her entire body moving in graceful curves as she slowly turned around to face him again. "Just watch me."

A breath, a beat, and Charles looked down at her hands and he followed her eyes. Fingers playing over the buttons of her jacket, undoing them deliberately.

"You are - you are," and words failed Erik completely as the whole idea hit him. Charles dancing - a kick to loosen her shoe and then she let it drop soundlessly to the carpet. The other shoe going the same way. Her hand skimming over her clothes, pressing the shirt and then the trousers against her skin.

The music weaving a spell around them, the words mixed in with Charles's quiet humming and his own harsh breaths.

That smile, sultry and knowing and full of unholy mischief, as she met his eyes again. "Like it like this?" she asked. "Or do you want me closer?"

"How much closer," Erik said.

"Close like this."

And he caught his breath as Charles stalked forward, put her hands on his shoulders, and slid onto his lap.

"Good God," Erik whispered, his hands coming up to her waist of their own volition. "Charles."

"Yes, Erik," she whispered, rolling her hips.

"Since when did you - "

"I don't dance," she said, and for a moment the smile was the one he knew well, the impish one she wore whenever they were together. "But I thought I'd try to give you a birthday present you'd never be able to forget."

" _You_ are the present," Erik said, and he tried to pull her in for a kiss but Charles was putting her hand on his mouth again.

This time he was ready - this time he opened his mouth and took in her fingers, holding them gently between his lips and his tongue.

"Oh, you," Charles laughed, and she reached up with her other hand and began to unbutton her shirt, still graceful even though she was now working one-handed.

Erik groaned when she got back to her feet, though she was still standing over him, his legs pinned between hers.

She shrugged her shoulders, slowly, an exaggerated motion, and the shirt fell to her feet in a pale heap.

"Want to help me with this?"

Erik looked at her trousers and nodded. It was difficult to concentrate on the button but he managed to undo it on the second try, and when he looked up Charles was taking his face between her hands, was pressing a heated kiss to his lips.

"Stay there, just a little longer," Charles said, and she moved backwards, away from him, showing off her waist and her hips - and then she was pushing the trousers off and stepping out of them.

"Beautiful," Erik breathed, admiring the contrast between Charles's pale skin and the dark red lace of her underthings.

This time when she sat back down in his lap he wound his arms securely around her. One hand in her hair, cupping the back of her head; the other teasing at the waistband of her panties. "Thank you," he whispered, and drew her in for a kiss.  



End file.
